Monday, December 17, 2012

Brooks Wesley is ONE!

Brooks Wesley turned ONE today! 
Our sweet little guy is ONE! I have to say it over and over again because I really can't believe it! This year flew by! His birthday is a little bitter sweet for me because I know it will be the last, first birthday we celebrate as a family. We are officially out of the baby stage! Crazy! 

We celebrated a day early with a fun family & friends party! 
Check out his Birthday chair! My dear friend Kerri helped me design this cool foam finger for the invitations and decorations! She is so good! And I LOVE having a graphic designer at my disposal. Thanks Shaniqua! 

Here is the invitation. I just printed out the design and typed up all the details and taped them to pre-made cards. Easy and super cute! 

I made these fun signs to hang up around the house too. 

We held the party on Sunday and had a fun football theme. 
I found these cute cups & straws and matching plates and napkins at Target in August at the beginning of the football season. I knew that this was the theme I wanted to do for Brooks' party, so I scooped them up early. I'm glad I did, because now I can't find any like them anywhere. 

We told everyone to wear their team apparel. Payton opted for a cat shirt and koala hat. She cheers for the animals! Ha! 
Payton and Nolan worked on his new lego set. 

And all the cousins played and played throughout the house. Loved all the orange and blue! There were a lot of Peyton Manning fans in our house yesterday! 

Landon LOVES football! 

Mariah, Auntie Kim, Ernie & Arie, and Auntie Jayne hanging out. 

We had game day foods: hotdogs, chili & cheese, nachos, popcorn, chips! All the good stuff! 

Uncle Dave LOVES Brooks! They hung out a lot during the day! 

The food was perfect for both the kids and adults! 

Brooks and Jack both celebrated their first birthdays this weekend! We love that they will grow up together! 

Jack and his beautiful mommy, Mandy! They are Browns fans! Jack was wearing the shirt we bought him when he was born. 

Here is Brooks' smash cake! 

He was so funny when we started singing. It looked like he was plugging his ears! 

But he dove right into the chocolate frosting! 

He was quite the mess! 

It looked like he had a mustache and goatee! 

Here is a video...

Payton asked me if she could lick the chocolate off his hand! I said, "Sure, go for it!" Love that funny girl! 

I made these little football cupcakes for everyone else. 

I think Lando enjoyed his cupcake almost as much as Brooksers! 

After cake, it was time for some presents! The frosting mess required an outfit change first. 

Of course, the boys had to help! 

He got some great little toys, and books, a t-shirt, a golf wall hanging for his room, and this Miles the Bronco Pillow Pet! 


Auntie Lindsay and Uncle James had already gone home to Cleveland for Christmas, so they gave us his gift early...some sweet books! 

The gift from Oma & Opa. 

After gifts it was time to snap some photos of all of Brooks' biggest fans, in our "photo booth"! 
Daddy and his boys! 

Uncle Deej and Mariah

Uncle E. Tebowing

The Jansen fam

The Krauth family

The Leensvaarts

Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue

The Syers family

Uncle Dave and all of the cousins! This picture cracks me up! Brooksie whacked Arie just before I took it, hence the crying! Poor guy! 

Auntie Sue loved the photo booth...we took a bunch of shots of her! 


Auntie Sue, Brooks, and Miles

Sisters! Sue & Barb

Oma, Payton, and Brady
For some reason, Bruce, and I, never got our pictures taken. Bummer! 

After some photo booth fun a bunch of people stayed to watch the Broncos game. 
Most people left around the third quarter, the Broncos were winning and the kids needed naps. But Sue & Dave stayed the whole afternoon and into the evening. We had a great time chatting and catching up and remembering Oma Bosch who passed away just one year ago today. We loved her dearly and are so happy to know that she left a little piece of her spirit behind in Brooks. They will always have that very special connection. 

It was a fun day for a fun boy!

Brooks Wesley...
Happy birthday buddy! 
We LOVE you so much! 
We love your gentle spirit, your cuddly snuggles, your wide smile, your infectious laugh! 
And we are really trying to love you even with your new found love of screaming! 
We pray that you will always be filled with this JOY! 
That you will always be kind. That you will always listen and love. 
We can not imagine our life with out you. You were the best surprise! 

xoxo Mommy & Daddy and your crazy big brothers

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Jansen Family Christmas 2012...and a little bit of Eckabee

On Saturday night, we had our first Christmas this year! Since we are flying to Chicago this year, we had and early celebration with Mark's family. 
The boys were super excited to give and receive gifts this year. 
(Nolan LOVES Brooks! He just adores his little baby brother. Here he was trying to get him to smile by tickling his head!)

Smiling with Oma & Opa before opening their stockings. 

Brooksie got sippy cups! We really need some new ones...we've gotten a few new over the years, but this poor guy doesn't need everything to be a hand me down! 

Heathy digging to the bottom! 

Nolan excited about a new car and some money! 

Brooksie was trying on Payton's new "koala" hat. I think it looks like a fuzzy Mickey Mouse hat! 

Playing the pickle game I introduced them to. We just did a kids round and Payton won. But the pickle was up high, so she had an advantage! Ha! 

The kids all draw a name and buy a present for each other. Brady had Heath and he bought him a Bullseye toy. Heath gave him the best hug after opening it.

Can you believe there was a Toy Story character we didn't have? Nolan informed me, though, that we still do not have Stinky Pete! Ha! 

Nolan got the game, "Guess Who?" A childhood favorite of mine, but now there is even an animal version, that he is super excited to play! 

Heath had Landon and we got him this cool Payton Manning shirt! Landon was SO excited to get it!
The second he opened it, he said, "on, on, on" until Cara put it right on him. He matched his big brother who was wearing the same shirt. 

Brooks got this BIG golf ball bank for his room! He didn't have a bank, so it was perfect, and big enough to save enough money to send himself to college! Ha! Yeah, right! 

Us adults, pull a name too. Mark was so proud of the gift that he made for Wes. A Notre Dame Bags set! 

After a fun and late night, we got the boys into their new p.j.'s and let them play for a few minutes with some of their new presents. 

We had a great night celebrating with the Jansen fam! Thanks for throwing a fun party just for us! We will miss you on Christmas! 

And just for fun...here are a few pictures of what our Elf on the Shelf, Eckabee, has been up to...
One night, he took down all of our stockings and hung up our underwear instead! That silly elf! Nolan was laughing hysterically at 7 a.m. when he found this! He woke us up with laughter! What a great way to start the day! 

And this morning, Eckabee was reminiscing on Christmas' past! Love this pic!